Seth Stapleton

Seth Stapleton
Adjunct Assistant Professor
[email protected]
Education

PhD, University of Minnesota. Conservation Biology
MSc, University of Georgia. Forest Resources: Wildlife Ecology.
BSc, The College of William and Mary. Biology and Environmental Science

External Affiliations

Director of Conservation and Research, Minnesota Zoo

Areas of Interest

Conservation of marine turtles, Population ecology, Impacts of climate change, Development of methods for monitoring wildlife populations

Teaching

2017: FW 5392 - Beyond the Field: Ex Situ Conservation (co-taught with Dr. Tara Harris)

Research

Through my position with the Minnesota Zoo's Conservation Department, I have the good fortune to participate in a variety of conservation and research initiatives spanning a diversity of taxa, ranging from freshwater mussels and prairie butterflies here in Minnesota to black rhinos in southern Africa. My research focuses on the conservation of marine turtles, primarily the critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle, in the eastern Caribbean. We leverage data accrued through a long-term mark-recapture study and combine with other methods such as satellite tracking, stable isotopes, and genetics to improve our understanding of hawksbill demography and population structure, reproductive ecology, spatial ecology, and the potential consequences of climate change on this keystone species.

Select Publications

  • Specht, H., H. Reich, F. Iannarilli, M. Edwards, S. Stapleton, M. Weegman, M. Johnson, B. Yohannes, and T. Arnold. 2017. Occupancy surveys with conditional replicates: An alternative sampling design for rare species. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12842
  • Stapleton, S., E. Peacock, and D. Garshelis. 2016. Aerial surveys suggest long-term stability in the seasonally ice-free Foxe Basin (Nunavut) polar bear population. Marine Mammal Science 32:181-201. doi: 10.1111/mms.12251.
  • Horrocks, J., S. Stapleton, H. Guada, C. Lloyd, E. Harris, M. Fastigi, J. Berkel, K. Stewart, and K. Eckert. 2016. International movements of adult female leatherback turtles in the Caribbean: Results from tag recovery data (2002 – 2013). Endangered Species Research 29:279-287.
  • Stapleton, S., M. LaRue, N. Lecomte, S. Atkinson, D. Garshelis, C. Porter, and T. Atwood. 2014. Polar bears from space: assessing satellite imagery as a tool to track Arctic wildlife. PLoS ONE 9(7): e101513. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0101513.
  • Stapleton, S., S. Atkinson, D. Hedman, and D. Garshelis. 2014. Revisiting Western Hudson Bay: Using aerial surveys to update polar bear abundance in a sentinel population. Biological Conservation 170:38-47.